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Some Aspects 



OF 



Indian Education 




I 

V 

Chas. F. Lummis 



BY 




THE TIDINGS COMPANY 
LOS ANGELES, CAL. 
J 902 



SOME ASPECTS 
e^OF INDIAN EDUCATION^ 



An off-hand talk by Chas. F. 
Lummis before the Newman 
Club, Los Angeles, California, 
November 28, 1900 

Mr. President and Gentlemen: It 
must have been, I think, three months, 
since I was honored by an invitation 
to speak here, and it may seem absurd 
for a man to say seriously that he has 
tried hard for three months and found 
it impossible to write a paper. Every 
day of the three months, as for every 
day of the last five years, I have 
worked twenty-one hours — and yet I 
have found it impossible to get an hour 
for preparation against tonight. So I 
must ask your forgiveness for being com- 
pelled to speak "from the hoof." Two 
of the reasons why I said yes to this 
invitation, as I have had to say no to 
every other, are these: you are Amer- 
icans and Catholics. Those are to me, 
two adequate reasons for speaking to you 
on this subject. I can go only half way. 
of course. I believe I am an American. 



My people, for 270 years, have believed 
they were. The other gulf, your indulg- 
ence must bridge. I am not and never 
will be a Catholic. My family is Metho- 
dist, and has been ever since the first 
dozen years there have been Methodists. 
Not the style of the latter-day bishops, 
whose idea is to sit in their easy chairs 
and have others do the converting — 
with a gun — but hard-faced and hard- 
fisted Puritans and iron Circuit Rid- 
ers; the men who corresponded in my 
Church to the Franciscans of yours ; 
the Franciscan missionaries whose trail 
I have followed for the last fifteen 
years or more. For myself I have no 
Church. The only creed I know, can 
be put in short space — to find out and 
tell the truth; to look up to that which 
is greater than I am ; not to my pocket, 
which a tailor created, someone else 
fills and someone else at last shall turn 
inside out for me; nor to my ignorance, 
nor to my lusts. 

Your President said something about 
not being afraid. Every man should 
be afraid; but there is only one 
thing to be afraid of — the only 
thing in the world that can hurt 
him — himself. There is no civilization, 
no Government, that can make a man 
a liar or a thief. There is but one 
power to do that — his own — and there- 



4 



fore that is the only thing he need fear. 
Because I believe truth should appeal 
to all, and this special truth doubly to 
Catholic Americans, I think it well to 
speak to you on one of the most im- 
portant problems in the United States, 
one in which every man and every part 
01 the United States are concerned. I 
imagine, and have for years imagined, 
that one of the ancient fables was 
something more than a fairy tale — the 
fable of Procrustes — the fabulous giant 
with his patent bed, the giant who 
went out upon the highway and way- 
laid all who passed and compelled 
them to partake of his hospitality and 
who insisted that they must fit his bed. 
If they were too long he would chop 
off their legs; if too short, he would 
rack them. And I think, gentlemen, 
we know that giant, although Theseus 
thought he killed him 2500 years ago. 
Who can he be, but that smiling bully, 
Philanthropy? 

The question of Indian education is 
that special phase of truth of which I 
wish to speak. When we read in our 
histories how "unjustly" the Spanish 
crown treated Columbus, we sympa- 
thize with him. But the real chief rea- 
son why he fell into disgrace was be- 
cause he was not a good Indian edu- 
cator. From his first voyage he car- 



1 



5 



ried Indian slaves back; but the Cath- 
olic Queen, who had pawned her jew- 
els to make a New World possible, 
did not enjoy seeing the natives made 
slaves, even in golden chains. In the 
second expedition, in 1493, she sent 
those first American exiles back ; 
and with the expedition Columbus 
had to carry at his expense twelve 
missionaries, who had, of course, 
their own instructions. And the in- 
structions to the commander of the ex- 
pedition were that he should always 
treat the Indians well and justly. That 
was the beginning of the Catholic In- 
dian policy; and if I sometimes use 
the words Catholic and Spain, it must 
cause no resentment, because Spain was 
the backbone of Catholicism — and I 
sometimes wish there were more back- 
bone now. 

In the year 1534 Fray Pedro de Gante 
founded a school for Indians in the 
City of Mexico. There was present in 
those days the feeling that the poor 
devils of human beings that lived here 
had some rights ; and that religion was 
real. In 1536, the first Bishop of Mex- 
ico, Zumarraga, brought from Spain 
the first printing office to the New 
World. In the year 1539, there was 
a book printed in the Aztec language for 
the Indians. The first English Bible 



6 



was printed in England in 1538. The 
first word of God the English could read 
in their own language was printed but 
one year before Spain had a Catholic 
hand book for the benefit of her In- 
dians in distant America. The title of 
the book is (translated) ''Brief and 
More Compendious Catholic Doctrine in 
the Aztec and Castilian Languages, which 
Contains the Most Necessary Matters 
of our Holy Catholic Faith, for the Ben- 
efit of These Native Indians, and the Sal- 
vation of Their Souls. By Permission, 
year 1539." And from that press, which 
was first in America by more than 
a century, there were, before 1575, 
scores of books in more than a dozen 
native Indian languages. What manner 
of men were these to do these things? 
The missionaries who struck the Atlan- 
tic seaboard "fell on their knees and 
then fell on the Indians." Their idea 
was to "make the brutes learn English." 
But the Catholic missionaries to Span- 
ish America found in this New 
World not merely a conqueror's ter- 
ritory. They studied, they traveled, 
they investigated, they wrote, they trans- 
lated. It seems to have been that, in 
those days, the missionary field was oc- 
cupied by crusaders and scholars, and 
not given over to gentlemen who per- 
haps found the occupation of waiter 



7 



tedious, or who were unable elsewhere 
to command a salary of $40 a month. 
By 1543 they had Industrial Schools for 
Indians in Mexico. Think of it ! 1543 ! 
I have here a copy of the "Me- 
morial'' of Benavides, printed in 
1630. I bring but a copy, as I would 
not dare to bring the original, which is 
one of but four in the world. He was 
Custodio of New Mexico. I walked 
from the East out to New Mexico and 
do not intend ever to walk back. The 
walking was not good. If there is a man 
who will walk it today, I will say he has 
a right to criticise the old-time Francis- 
can missionary; but until he does walk, 
I will not concede that right. But the 
missionaries had got there and by 
walking. Speaking of the Queres Na- 
tions, the Custodio says : "These In- 
dians are already proficient in writing, 
reading and playing, thanks to the great 
industry of the Religious who converted 
them."' In the "Nation Pecos" "these In- 
dians are well instructed in the arts, 
reading, writing, etc." Here I hold the 
first book of poems by an American In- 
dian. It came out in 1581 and is by Gar- 
cilaso de la Vega, one of the Inca Indians 
of Peru. He not only published that 
book in 1581 — some one was considerate 
enough to leave a copy where I could 
get it — but he published his very volu- 



8 



trillions, not over-reliable, but well-writ- 
ten, Commentaries on the Incas, in 1605, 
and had the impudence to write a his- 
tory of part of our own country (Flor- 
ida;, and for its time not bad. When 
I speak thus severely, it is only 
fit to add that in 1605 he had 
about the same idea of history that 
Prescott had 240 years later. Then I 
have at home what was not printed until 
forty years ago, but written before 1588 
by the Mexican Indian, Fray Diego 
de Duran— a ponderous history In 
two full folio volumes, of Prehistoric 
Mexico, with scores of elaborate illus- 
trations. These were American Indians 
and under the Church which is "an 
enemy to knowledge." 

Coming back the last of September 
from New Mexico with my little girl, 
m a Pullman, whose windows were shut 
down, and seeing people with their cur- 
tains down trying to kill time and afraid, 
they seemed to be, that they would see 
something in a country where every- 
thing is different; and groaning and 
complaining over the difficulties of their 
journey, I thought, "I wonder what you 
would say if you had to start out with 
Marcos de Niza and walk from Mexico 
to Compostela, and to the Center of Ari- 
zona, and then had to turn because a com- 
panion was killed by the Indians, and 



9 



walk back." They walked, then. With 
Coronado came Fray Juan de Padilla, 
the first martyr of Kansas or the United 
States. He walked from Mexico to 
Zuni, to the Grand Canon of the Col- 
orado, back to Zuni, to the Rio Grande 
and up to Pecos, on the Divide, and 
from Pecos over to the great bend of 
the Arkansas River, near where Kansas 
City is now, and back to the center of 
New Mexico. And when Coronado left 
for Mexico in 1542, Fray Juan de Pa- 
dilla remained behind, and with three 
companions walked back to Kansas 
and met his death. Nothing stopped 
these men. There is another thing 
that I have noticed in exploring from 
Colorado down to Chile. There is not 
one of these peoples, except a few can- 
nibal tribes, that is not Catholic. 

There are thousands of Catholic tem- 
ples along a 6000-mile stretch ; of which, 
more than 50 per cent are more striking 
than any church buildings in the United 
States. An expert who figured it for 
me said that one built by Junipero Serra, 
that at San Juan Capistrano, Cal., 
could not be replaced for $100,000 today 
— and it is a poor little hut compared 
with hundreds of magnificent struc- 
tures from Chihuahua down to the mid- 
dle of Chile. 

Alonso de Benavides says that when 

10 



he came in as Custodio there were 250 
Spaniards in Santa Fe, and "the- prin- 
cipal thing was lacking, which was a 
church." He set to work, in 1622. to 
built the Parroquia, a part of which is 
incorporated in the present Cathe- 
dral. He said the missionaries first 
built churches for the Indians whom 
they were trying to convert, and 
that Santa Fe had to wait. There 
were then eleven churches. Yes, 
three years before Plymouth Rock, there 
were eleven churches in New Mexico, 
all in Indian pueblos. The Fathers had 
gone 300 miles across the mountains 
to Zuni and built a big church there; 
and ninety or one hundred miles 
north to Moqui and built there. I 
want to call attention to the fact that 
it was not a call to a fashionable pulpit. 
The pay of those missionaries was $150 
a year; afterwards raised to $330, pay- 
able every three years ; and their fare 
from Mexico (which meant the privi- 
lege of trudging along the King's road 
under the protection of the caravan) 
was $266, which left the fathers "out''' 
something like a year's salary. I do not 
think I need to draw out to you a pic- 
ture of what one of those men faced 
when he got from Mexico to New Mex- 
ico, say in 1608-10, when the great tide 
pf work began. The first missionaries 



11 



came with Coronado, but the first per- 
manent ones in 1598, with Onate. If 
you will imagine yourselves setting out 
and walking from here to Kansas City, 
and then being thrown off into the mid- 
dle of the Sahara, we will say, with a 
cannibal tribe thrown in ! Where are 
you going to sleep? What are you go- 
ing to eat ? How are you to ask for what 
you want? If your parishioners wish to 
tomahawk or poison you, you can't 
help it. If they wish to let you starve 
to death, what are you to do? Suppose 
the nearest white man is 300 miles away, 
and but few of him, and he as badly be- 
deviled as you? It would take too long 
to draw a picture of a missionary's life 
in New Mexico— established there where 
I know what were the danger and hard- 
ship. And over forty of them were mar- 
tyred in that one territory. Those mis- 
sionaries were men ! I have often 
thought, as I have wandered over those 
countries, with the tribes with whom I 
manage to get along well (because I can 
pass for either a Padre or a bull-fighter, 
and they never take me for a "Gringo") 
— it has often occurred to me what a 
strange thing it is that here are those 
hundreds of tribes, all Catholic and 
speaking Spanish more or less — and then 
in self-defense I have tried to think of 
a Methodist tribe. I am sure my grand- 



1 2 



father, if he had got there, would have 
left converts or sore heads. It is a 
sad matter of fact, but not a tribe speaks 
English, and there is not an Indian 
tribe which belongs to any Protes- 
tant denomination. I have known a 
great many Indians of a great many 
tribes and countries. I have never 
known a Protestant Indian. I have 
known several that thought they were 
Protestants, but never knew one that 
really was. There was one who went 
to Carlisle. That man when he came to 
die, sent for my good friend, Father 
Docher, whom he had abused and tra- 
duced. This Indian was the paragon 
of Carlisle. A very able and good 
scientist has published several works for 
which that boy furnished the informa- 
tion. When the National Convention 
of Indian teachers was held here last 
year, in which there was only one voice, 
and that a poor woman's, that dared 
to be raised against the prevailing sys- 
tem, the most brilliant example to whom 
attention could be called was Henry 
Kendall. I could not refrain from giv- 
ing my views in opposition ; and the sec- 
retary of the convention, after coming 
down and trying to smooth me over 
because I was incensed at the scientific 
ignorance and inhumanity of the con- 
vention, expostulated and objected to 



13 



my holding that Indian children loved 
their mothers and should be allowed to. 
He said, "There is Henry Kendall, and 
how much better he is off — and he knew 
it — for being weaned from his mother's 
influence." I said, "Yes, Mr. Gates, 
do you know Henry? Where did you 
see him?" He said he had talked with 
him several times for a few minutes. 
He asked, "Do you know him, Mr. Lum- 
mis?" I said, "I think I do. I knew 
him when he was a little boy before he 
was sent to school and knew him when 
he came back, a grown man. As every 
hand was turned against him, my wife 
and I had him come and eat with us 
and talk with us. I saw this poor boy, 
the best educated Indian I ever knew, 
saw him carried away by the current 
into which he was thrown, and we 
tried to see if we could not keep his 
head above water, until he could adjust 
himself. But we could not. He could 
not stand the pressure, went to pieces, 
made a terror of himself; was a scan- 
dal and a danger and finally died in a 
horrible way; but before he died he sent 
for 'this priest whom he had abused." 
I said this, and Mr. Gates said : "Oh ! 
Are you of the Church of Rome?" as if 
I could not tell the truth if I were. 
"No," I said, "Mr. Gates, I am not— 
but I hope I am a man." Mr. Gates 



14 



had no more to say, but it struck me as 
strikingly characteristic, the thinking 
that if a man is a Catholic he cannot be 
right. You know the saying, "If Ma 
says so, it is so, if it isn't so." The re- 
verse seems to be the case with these 
people, "If a Catholic says it is so. it 
isn't so, even if it is so." For my own 
part, I do not care what church a man 
follows, so long as he speaks the truth. 
I do not much care what a man be- 
lieves, if he believes it hard enough 
to make a man of him. 

It seems to me that the secret of the 
policy which accomplished so much for 
the Indians was perhaps not that the 
missionaries were Catholics or Span- 
iards, but that they believed in some- 
thing. At the back of their system was 
their belief — a love, a creed — not poli- 
tics. That Indian system which the 
Catholic Church and the Spanish Gov- 
ernment administered over two-thirds of 
America for three and a half centuries 
—the root of that system was the con- 
sideration that the Indian was a human 
being, born of woman and loved by his 
mother ; that he had a father and tended 
to love him. I would like to be Czar 
for one week — just long enough to com- 
pel every American and every bigot to 
read the Spanish laws formulated for 
the treatment of the Indians — "las Leyes 



15 



de Indias." No other nation in the world 
— and I am willing to stake my reputa- 
tion on the statement — has ever put into 
force laws so noble, so far-sighted, so 
humane, as those formulated by the 
Crown of Spain, with Church assistance, 
and carried out by the official and cleri- 
cal administrators. I would like to ask 
the Indian Bureau, Have you any laws 
like these : "That Indians shall not be 
separated from their parents ; that In- 
dians shall not be brought to this King- 
dom (Spain) ; that they shall not be 
moved from their native places. ,, They 
could not even be moved to a reserva- 
tion ! "Indians shall be civilized with- 
out being oppressed." "Since they are 
needy people, care must be taken that 
the Indians should be accommodated in 
the price of foods and other things." 
That "they must be taxed with justice 
and moderation, and must be sold things 
much cheaper than other people" I 
would like to see a copy of such a 
law posted in the store of an Indian 
trader who charges Indians five prices 
for spoiled goods ! The secret of 
these laws was that the Spanish Govern- 
ment saw that the great wealth of Amer- 
ica was to be in the people, not in 
mines. Where are our millions of In- 
dians? There are but 250,000 left now 
in the United States, and the great ma- 



16 



jority of those are left because they 
happen to be in the areas that the Span- 
ish Government and the Catholic Church 
controlled until 1848. They are the only 
Indians who are secure in their lands. 
Relatively few tribes have safe United 
States patents. The government pledge 
as to reservations has been broken 
again and again. The Indian tribe 
stands to the individual in loco 
parentis. He cannot alienate his land 
without consent of the tribe. The 
land is his to use but not to waste ; not 
to gamble away. The land-in-severalty 
scheme is as foolish and as cruel as to 
remove the "age-of-consent" laws by 
which we protect our girls. Such a 
guaraian the tribe has been ; the Gov- 
ernment has not, nor the Government 
schools. On the other hand, Spanish 
America invariably protected the Indian 
in the tenure of his land. Furthermore, 
it is a proved fact that, take Spanish- 
America all together, the Indian is as 
numerous there now as in 1520. 

I meant to have read you more of 
those old Sapnish laws in relation to the 
Indians and their status, but it would be 
too long. Here they are, however, if 
you care to see them. A reason why 
these Indians are alive today is that 
these missionaries who converted and 
educated them were Men, with a large 



17 



letter. They came to the Indians, into 
danger, into hardships, to count noth- 
ing of the loss that an educated man 
would feel in being absolutely cut off 
from intellectual companionship; living 
forever among the Indians ; living with- 
out good things to eat, or enough to eat ; 
without sufficient warmth or clothing; 
without any of the things we think we 
must have. They lived among the In- 
dians and talked with them or they could 
not have taught the Indians. They were 
among them all the time, and came in 
contact with the whole people as well 
as with the children, and uplifted all of 
them together. They recognized the In- 
dian mother's love, and instead of curs- 
ing her for that love, blessed her for it ; 
and working in conjunction with the 
family love, they had an influence which 
no stranger at a distance could exer- 
cise. One reason we do not get the 
same results is because the instruction 
is by men whom there is no need to 
criticise bitterly — it is enough that they 
have got to drag the children to them. 
They could not even live in California. 
We are too wild and woolly. They can- 
not leave the East, where they have all 
the refinements of civilization; the chil- 
dren must be brought to them. The old 
folks? The old folks do not count. 
They are breeders of children, who will 



18 



do to fill Indian schools, and if the 
schools are full, so many teachers get 
good salaries. As I think there are prob- 
ably none here tonight who are not hu- 
man beings, none who have lost feeling 
for such things, I want to tell you what 
they do — the best of them. I will take 
your own child — presuming that we are 
below the plane of the East. A Boston 
salary-drawer entitled by the laws of 
the United States to educate all children 
of the United States, takes your daugh- 
ter and my son by force to Boston to 
be educated, leaving us at home. We 
may have more children when he comes 
again. The children are taken. They 
have their long curly hair, and gar- 
ments which we deem all right, and 
names by which they were baptized. The 
first thing to happen them in Boston is 
that they are put down in a chair — held 
down — and their hair cut off as in a 
State's prison. I don't think much of 
hair myself ; but we must remember that 
to an Indian his hair is most dear. It is 
not only self-respect, but part of his 
very creed. Then the clothing that we 
think good enough for our children — 
that isn't good enough for Boston. They 
take it off and clothe them in sheet-iron. 
I never knew of any Government In- 
dian instructor with brains enough to 
remember the names of the Indian chil- 



19 



dren coming to his school. The name 
that was given by parental love is 
changed. It is not good enough for the 
instructor. It is not convenient enough. 
Perhaps not a number is given, but the 
name "Blue White of Dawn" is 
changed to "Jack"— a good name, if 
given properly. Then after the hair has 
been cut and the clothes and name 
changed, these children are sent out into 
the yard to play with other frightened 
children. Perhaps they find some from 
California and naturally begin to talk 
and console one another. A gentleman 
comes out and says in his own language. 
"Stop that talking ! You have got to talK 
Boston here." And, of course, they do 
not understand, and the only way to 
enlighten them is with a switch. It is a 
matter of fact that no child is allowed 
to use his native language while in the 
Government Indian schools. I have no 
objection to his learning English, but 
what would you say if a man should 
offer to teach your daughter or son ever 
so much wisdom, and in payment you 
should have to give them away forever? 
You would not take the trouble to laugh. 
You might kick him. 

A boy now living with me — an Indian 
— now 18 years old, was stolen from his 
home, by the head of an Indian Gov- 
ernment school — the Albuquerque school 



20 



— by false representations, and for three 
years was not allowed to go home. If 
there are any good parents in the world 
his father and mother are. When I 
finally brought him back after a fight 
wherein I beat the Superintendent, and 
the Superintendent of all schools (the 
Rev. Daniel Dorchester) and the United 
States Indian Commissioner (Morgan), 
he could not talk to his own mother, nor 
she to him. My wife had to interpret 
for weeks between them. The man who 
could look at that thing and say that 
the system allowing it is just — I think 
God could get along without having 
him on the face of -the earth. He is not 
fit to count in the census. Indians love 
their children with a love as tender and 
true as do people of other races. Mother- 
love was made with the first mother and 
the first child, and will last forever. An- 
other little example — this same boy, 
when he was eight years old, was in a 
good school. After I got him out from 
the Government school in Albuquerque, 
the poor old father and mother, who 
thought he ought to learn, came to me 
for advice and said : "Don Carlos, can 
we send him to Mother Drexel at Santa 
Fe?" I said "Yes, I think it is a good 
thing." And they sent him there. He 
got so homesick that he started 
home in the month of February. You 



21 



probably know what the climate of New 
Mexico is at that time of the year— a 
most severe one. The average mean 
temperature for February for ten years 
is 29 degrees. He walked from Santa 
Fe to Isleta, 90 miles, to get to his 
mother; and slept out nights with noth- 
ing but his little school jacket. He did 
not love his mother, did he? 

The Indian is a peculiar person in a 
good many ways. One is he has not 
yet gambled away the eyes or memory 
with which nature endowed him. He 
can see where Ave cannot. I used to 
have what was a reasonable eye, for a 
white man, but it was never as good as 
that of the average Indian. He will 
point out something miles away. He 
will say, "That is a burro with two 
men. The one behind is a little taller.'*' 
I used to think it was a "bluff" ; but it 
would turn out true. They can also 
see character. You might look at an 
Apache for hours and never know him; 
and he could sit beside you and not look 
at you, and pretty nearly know what 
you had for breakfast! 
^ When the old-time Franciscan mis- 
sionaries came to these people, they stud- 
ied them, loved them, stayed with them 
in health or in sickness. You would 
not believe it if I would count up the 
modern missionaries I have known to 



22 



run away because of a contagious dis- 
ease. Do you think the Indian is so 
much of a fool that he does not see the 
difference? I presume that a Presby- 
terian school or a Methodist school 
might be just as good — or even a Gov- 
ernment school. If only it were as sin- 
cere ! It is not because a school is Cath- 
olic that it is good. I think the reason 
is that they believe. The reason our 
schools fail is because there is no real 
belief. They are "in for the job"— nine 
out of ten. 

I can't find that any of the old mis- 
sionaries, or any Spanish or Catholic 
organization, ever taught or ever tried 
to teach things one-tenth as absurd as 
those largely taught in the Government 
schools. There was one Spaniard, a 
Corregidor, up in the Andes, who, 
thinking it would be a good thing to 
prevent snow-blindness, imported spec- 
tacles and compelled the Indians to buy 
them. It caused the rebellion of 1780. 
But he was an exception. The men of 
the olden times had a religion which I 
like because they "had it so hard." They 
had also a common-sense which I re- 
spect. But there is not much of either, 
in these schools to which the Govern- 
ment is forcing the children; forcing 
them to forego their names, and home 
speech and manners, the things that are 



n 



as natural for them as for us. Thev 
teach reading, writing and figuring, it 
is true, and these are good to a certain 
degree; but I have known Navajo 
boys sent back to try to do sanitary 
plumbing among the nomad, Navajos; 
or typesetting and watchmaking! A 
large part are taught to make shoes— 
brogans, an industry for convicts and 
Indian schools — a poor excuse for a 
good old Indian moccasin. The Indians 
are taught by those who know nothing 
about Indians except as they see them 
m the schools. They know nothing 
of the different tribes. The Pueb- 
los were farmers and irrigators be- 
fore Columbus was born; they taught us 
irrigation,— which is to farming what 
fire is to other things. Yet the schools 
conducted by people who do not know 
a Pueblo from a Comanche, treat the 
Pueblo as a Comanche. The Comanche 
is a tramp and nomad. Treated alike, 
both must be taught the same trades for 
use among absolutely different people. 
Then when they are sent back, almost 
without exception, the boys and girls 
are ruined for life. They have been 
taught that their parents are ignorant, 
bigoted, superstitious savages; taught 
what no Indian boy or girl ever thought 
of, impudence. I never in my life— and 
I have known a vast number of Indians 



24 



all over the New World — saw an Indian 
child disrespectful to an elder, but one, 
who was not from an Indian school. 
These graduates have been largely 
spoiled, for their people. Taken away 
from home for five or six years, from the 
age of five, they are not only alienated, 
but too often come back weakened in 
constitution. At this wonderful conven- 
tion of Major Pratt, he presented one or 
two of his Indian star-graduates. They 
were fine bright young people — but they 
were consumptive ! And practically, the 
only consumptive Indians are from the 
Eastern schools. They are taken East 
like fish out of water. *They are abso- 
lutely alienated from their people, and 
then turned adrift. The great new Pratt 
plan is — never to let their people see them 
again ! That is better, isn't it ? They 
are to be taken back East from Arizona, 
California, New Mexico ; taught to be 
blacksmiths, etc., and turned loose in 
the East — and let their people get along 
as best they can. The father and mother 
will die, anyhow, and then the children 
will be just as near their parents as if 
in California or Kansas ! If that is not 
the refinement of brutality, of cruelty, 
of ignorance, then I have never encoun- 
tered ignorance or brutality. It has 
taken us a thousand years and more to 
rise from savagery. Our forbears had 



25 



not fire. They were raw-meat-eating, 
cave-dwelling savages. We did not 
change, and could not change., in a day 
but that is what we require of the In- 
dians. I presume that you all know that 
I am talking to you as Americans, and not 
as Catholics. I have. I feel, the right to 
talk as an American. I want to say I 
do not believe the time has yet come for 
Catholics to be jumped on with spike- 
naiiea snoes because the}* are Catholics, 
lou doubtless know that for something 
like a dozen years there has been a great 
cry raised in regard to "sectarian educa- 

fight has been to wipe out the Catholic 
Contract Indian Schools. That cam- 
paign has gone on and this year reached 
its climax. For four or five years, ap- 
propriations have been cut down, lower 
and lower, and this year ended., alto- 
gether. "If it is fair to leave out the 
Presbyterians and Methodists, it is also 
fair to leave out the Catholics," said the 
sly politicians. The simple fact that 
there are one or two Methodist schools 
and five or six Presbyterian, and fifty 
Catholic, does not cut any figure, of 
course! The fact is that the Catholic 
schools were and are the vast bulk of 
the Indian schools. Do not think I 
mean to say that Catholic schools should 
be allowed to remain because they are 



26 



Catholic schools. My reason for ob- 
jecting to the campaign against them is 
not because they are Catholic, but be- 
cause they are good schools ; not be- 
cause they are Church schools, but be- 
cause they are beneficial and competent 
and honest, and that is the chief reason 
why you should object to the campaign, 
with the added reason that your faith 
is attacked. I pity the man who does 
not believe what he believes, enough to 
fight for it. The fact is that the Catho- 
lic Church and its schools are the pio- 
neers in Indian education in America. 
It was not until 1807 that an English- 
speaking person came to New Mexico, 
In 1617 there were eleven Catholic 
churches in New Mexico, and all had 
their Indian schools. The reason why 
I am opposed to this campaign is be- 
cause these are the only schools I know 
of that are doing the Indians lasting 
good. Not because of the religion, which 
is nothing to me, although it is the In- 
dians' religion to a great extent. I do 
not believe that one should be taken 
from his father's faith or his mother's 
faith for the whim of a school teacher. 
I am judging by the long results. I 
have not known a child from a Catholic 
school who had forgotten his parents or 
his language. I have not known any of 
the girls that have gone wrong in the 



2: 



Indian towns to have come from a Cath- 
olic, school. Not one ! But I have known 
a good many from Carlisle and other 
Government schools. Go with me to 
that exquisitely neat and motherly school 
of Sister Margaret, at Bernalillo ; go with 
me to the Albuquerque, or to the Santa 
Fe school, and then let a man of the 
world judge which of those he would 
choose as a place for his children. If 
there is anything in the world, though 
not a Catholic, that I revere, it is a 
Sister of Charity. There is something 
selfish in that admiration, as well as 
something of experience, for I have 
known them for a long time, and in boy- 
hood I thought they were terrible; but 
I have seen them when the black "vom- 
ito" raged in the tropics, and moth- 
ers and fathers fled away from 
their own children, and people fell in 
the streets ; and those daughters of God 
picking up the deserted dead and dying. 
And I have felt their tender mercy my- 
self; and when a man comes to me and 
says that a child— or a dog—had better 
be taught by a politician who is re- 
warded by a place in a government In- 
dian school, than by a Sister of Charity, 
he wants to bring his fire-escape with 
him, that's all. And it seems to me that 
any American, not to say any Catholic 
An ©"i«n, cowid ittt ijtter employ part 



28 




of his money than in aiding the support 
of the Indian schools conducted by these 
noble and unselfish women, now 
frowned upon and even actively antago- 
nized by the partisan spirit of our poli- 
ticians. 



Finis 



*The report of the Commissioner of 
Indian Affairs for 1901 is an unexpected 
confirmation of Mr. 'Lummis' remarks. 



29 




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